


Cassandra, Cassandra, How Will You Get Your Next Scar?

by puffinmuffin13



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Listen okay if you don't read the fic this is inspired by it probably won't make much sense, M/M, Scars, Time Loop, but read anyway if ya want I know y'all saimoters are starving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27764152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puffinmuffin13/pseuds/puffinmuffin13
Summary: Kaito Momota did not understand why Shuichi Saihara had so many scars, why he seemed to expect everyone's deaths, or why he compared himself to Cassandra.But most of all, Kaito didn't understand why he had to lose him.
Relationships: Iruma Miu & Momota Kaito, Iruma Miu & Saihara Shuichi, Momota Kaito/Saihara Shuichi, Saihara Shuichi & Shinguji Korekiyo
Comments: 4
Kudos: 36





	Cassandra, Cassandra, How Will You Get Your Next Scar?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kagazuly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kagazuly/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Everlasting dissonance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24831862) by [Kagazuly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kagazuly/pseuds/Kagazuly). 



> Yeehaw Kagz here's your angst

Kaito didn't understand a good number of things happening to him. He didn't understand why he was placed in a killing game; he didn't understand why someone would force them to kill someone or die; he didn't understand what kind of enjoyment whoever was running this game got out of seeing everyone cry over Tenko's execution. He didn't understand any of it.

But something else he didn't understand was one of his classmates.

Shuichi Saihara, who didn't mention his talent besides it being apparently "unimportant." Kaito knew Kiyo thought that odd; he accidentally overheard Kiyo talking to Shuichi the other day, asking why he felt his talent was unimportant. As far as he could tell, the therapist got no answers, because he glanced at Shuichi at mealtimes and could be seen spending time with him whenever nobody else was asking after him.

But hey, maybe he was just concerned by the amount of scars on Shuichi's body.

His metal arm was the first thing that drew Kaito's attention when they first met; he thought it cool, since he himself was missing a limb as well. It was when he looked away from his arm that Kaito froze, shock mixing in with his blood and hopefully not showing up in his expression.

Shuichi had two scars under his right eye, like someone was trying to cut out his eye, or at least injure it – it looked like they succeeded at some point, too, as his right eye couldn't seem to focus on Kaito. And then he had a cut on his lip – Kaito had to shake himself out of it in order to smile and offer to shake Shuichi's hand.

Except once he did that, he just had to glance down, because Shuichi's hand felt weird.

And that's when he discovered Shuichi had burn scars all over his remaining hand.

It was no wonder why Shuichi had started wearing gloves the next time Kaito saw him. He likely didn't like his own scars, the same way Kaito didn't like his own sometimes. 

But whether he liked them or not, Kaito couldn't help but notice more and more of them.

A faint line on his neck.

Some stitching on his arm when his sleeve was put up.

And when Kaito ruffled his hair and got him to laugh, he noticed that his mouth was pulled back by a mark by the back of his cheek, accompanying a slight discoloration of his skin.

Kaito didn't know what to think about it all.

But strangely, Shuichi seemed to like spending time with him, so he waved him over at dinner and Miu asked him his opinion on whatever random topic they were talking about that day. It just worked, somehow. Shuichi seemed to know just what jokes would make them laugh.

And every time there was another death, Shuichi would stare at the body and then sigh, psyching himself up for something he almost seemed to have faced a hundred times over.

There was always something in those frowns – something bitter and guilty. With Gonta's death, Kaito worried it meant Shuichi was the mastermind, but during one time while they were alone together for just a few minutes, Shuichi stared up at the sky and told him quietly that he felt like Cassandra. Like if he ever tried to change the future, no one would listen and everything would fall apart anyway.

Kaito listened without talking, even though he was tempted to recommend Shuichi talk about it with Kiyo.

Wasn't it funny? Within a few days, Shuichi Saihara skipped into Kaito's life and stole him away with a smile. His scars held stories he did not tell, but he did not dwell on them. He always looked to the future; to what would come next. Somehow, by some miracle, he was always optimistic, even when everything seemed lost and their classmates died one by one.

Kaito didn't understand him at all.

He especially didn't understand when he found Shuichi's body, crushed underneath bricks and boxes and anything heavy whoever killed him could find in the warehouse. He remembered yelling, and that Miu was swearing next to him, and then before he could draw breath there was something wet on his face.

Tears.

Shuichi would never laugh at him ruffling his hair again.

Kaito crouched by the body as Rantaro performed his autopsy and Tsumugi interrogated Miu on their shared alibi. As he worked, Rantaro muttered, and Kaito could catch some guesses for what caused some of Shuichi's scars.

The line on his neck looked like it was made by a scalpel.

The stitching on his arm seemed to be from an axe or other large weapon.

He was stumped on the burnt hand, or maybe he didn't think it worth commenting on, because he skipped over to what was apparently an explosion scar at the back of his cheek and Kaito realized with his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth that Rantaro did not spend much time with Shuichi. Miu, Kiyo, and him, Kaito, were Shuichi's best and probably only friends. Kaito never saw him with anyone else.

Kaito refused to look back at the body as the trial was called. He knew it would be gone by the time he got back.

But hah, how cruel is life? There was a mistake – an attempt at saving them all. Kirumi overheard something Shuichi admitted to Kiyo – the burn on his hand was caused by his own will – and misinterpreted it. Kirumi thought she was helping. Kirumi thought she was going to put an end to the killing game.

Kaito didn't know what to think.

Kaito didn't understand his classmate, and now he'll never get to know him like he wanted to.

Kaito wished, perhaps, that he could have spent another day with Shuichi – asked him to tell him more about why he felt like Cassandra.

And Miu wished too.

She told him she wished she understood what he said to her the day before she died, because now she knew that he knew. He knew he was being targeted for murder; he knew something strange about the killing game.

Cassandra, indeed.

Talent unimportant, indeed.

Because it was not talent they lost with Shuichi's crushed body. It was snickers, smiles, stories, and scars.

Scars Kaito thought he matched at first, until he looked away from Shuichi's waving hand and to the rest of him.

Kaito didn't understand a single goddamn thing.

But most of all, he didn't understand why he had to fall in love with someone so strange, only for him to be taken away again.


End file.
